Freemium Customer Care - CRM Magazine

The freemium business model is meant to deliver benefits for both business and customer: For the business, it's a strategy to foster loyalty, product or service awareness, and long-term revenue potential, and for the customer, it makes discovering a product or service effortless and worry-free. However, this business approach presents a series of unique challenges?and customer service is one of them. As career-long customer care specialists, we've seen that one size doesn't fit all. Freemium model customer care must include a distinct approach.

Taking care of freemium customers requires thought and a personal touch, or you run the risk of creating more problems than solutions. Generally, dialogue about freemium customer care deficits pivots around the fact that customer service departments aren't adapting for this model, which thrives on live, customized interaction between agents and customers.

The difference between the freemium and subscription model?that the former offers customers a scaled-down set of product or service features for free before, or instead of, purchasing a subscription, the latter not offering a free level of product or service at all?is what defines the difference between customer support strategies for the two models. Because customer retention isn't built in to the freemium model, customer care agents for freemium businesses have an incredibly high standard to meet and ultimately drive business success.

Over the years, we've observed that specific best practices hold true time and again in freemium customer interactions. They may confirm that what you're doing in freemium customer care is on track, or inspire you to uplevel the way your agents communicate with your customers. There are five such practices.

Don't just serve, care. The number one mindset shift that needs to be made with freemium customer interactions is that the goal is to establish personal relationships, not isolated transactions. The idea of customer service connotes a certain flatness and mechanical response. Caring for the customer and keeping him at the center of the dialogue is crucial in a freemium support capacity because there is no reason that a customer must continue using?or paying for?your product or service. If a customer is experiencing a technical issue or upset about another aspect of the service, an agent's personalized approach to solving the problem can be the difference between retention and attrition.

Rethink success. The freemium-based business should center success metrics around its customer-centric mission, not necessarily pure sales or length of calls. Of course revenue and conversion play a role in a freemium organization's success, but at the forefront of measurement should be customer happiness. Satisfaction surveys and random call monitoring are ways businesses can track this, the most critical of all metrics.

Crunch?and use?the numbers. The call center inherently holds tons of rich qualitative and quantitative data. The successful freemium business finds ways to leverage that data and package it in a way that becomes meaningful throughout the organization, including marketing, product, and technology groups. At MyLife, we implemented a feedback mechanism that gathered data around customer usage of our Web site and presented findings and trends to our entire organization. As a result, we implemented a new service that helps customers manage their online presence, something that was an expressed need directly from customers and which became a new revenue stream for our organization.

Expect more from agents. The onus is higher on the freemium company to continue delivering value, so the business' challenge is to build a customer care team that broadens traditional call center boundaries. Freemium models include paid options that expand on the free service set. Bring on board agents with sales backgrounds, who are skilled at confidently educating customers on the value of the product or service, leading a call, and reselling a customer on the value. In addition, incorporate formal personality profiling to identify what top performing agents have in common and work to assimilate those characteristics throughout the team.

Make it personal. We cannot stress this enough?your customer care agents need to have a passion for forming personal connections with your customers. If you're scripting your agents, every call will feel like the same call, every customer will be treated like the one before, and true listening and problem solving cannot occur. The freemium call center is not there for the sole purpose of solving technology issues or resolving billing concerns, but it is there to make customers feel comfortable enough with your company that they want to keep spending their valuable time and money on what you sell. To keep care agents focused on the individual customer, do away with scripts and measuring agents on the duration of their calls. Without these constraints, true customer care can flourish.

When supporting freemium customers, businesses must recognize the long-term value of each and every person on the customer support line, and vouch to listen as though he or she is the only customer. One size doesn't fit all when it comes to freemium customer service, and if businesses align their practices to this philosophy, they won't just meet the high customer care bar, they'll clear it outright.

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Aaron Taylor is the vice president of customer care at MyLife, a Web site that enables more than 60 million members to connect to and manage all their social and email accounts, monitor their online information, and make new connections all in one place. For more information, visit www.mylife.com.

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Source: http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/Freemium-Customer-Care-86944.aspx

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Britain's top tabloid scolds Argentina over the Falklands

BUENOS AIRES/LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest-selling newspaper had a simple message for Argentina in an editorial published on Friday in the South American country: "HANDS OFF" the Falkland Islands.

The seven-paragraph epistle, penned by the populist Sun tabloid and published in Argentina's main English language newspaper, came in response to fresh demands from President Cristina Fernandez to open talks over the sovereignty of the South Atlantic archipelago.

The two countries fought a 10-week war in 1982 over the remote islands, which are part of Britain's self-governing overseas territories and are known in Argentina as Las Malvinas.

Britain won the war but Argentina started pressing its sovereignty claim anew last year after oil exploration began in waters near the islands.

"British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands dates back to 1765, before the Republic of Argentina even existed," the Sun said in its open letter to Fernandez, published in both Spanish and English in the Buenos Aires Herald.

"In the name of our millions of readers," the Sun said, "HANDS OFF!"

The Sun, part of media mogul Rupert Murdoch's empire, has a long history of publishing fervently patriotic articles. One of its front pages during the 1982 war it marked the news that British forces had sunk the Argentine warship General Belgrano with the banner headline "GOTCHA."

As the extent of Argentine losses began to emerge, the Sun changed its headline in later editions. A total of 323 Argentines lost their lives in the attack on the Belgrano.

While the rhetoric has yet to reach such levels, tensions have flared between London and Buenos Aires against the new backdrop of oil prospects.

Crude was found to the north of the Falklands in 2010 by Rockhopper Exploration, drawing interest from hedge funds and other investors despite threats from Argentina to disrupt the activity.

In an open letter from Fernandez to Prime Minister David Cameron published in British newspapers on Thursday, the fiery two-term Peronist leader accused Britain of breaching United Nations resolutions calling for a negotiated solution.

Cameron rejects negotiations, saying the approximately 3,000 people of the Falkland Islands have chosen to be British.

In its Friday edition, the Sun used less moderate language for its own British readers than in its open letter to Fernandez, labeling her country a "banana republic."

"Stirring up trouble over the Falklands creates a convenient sideshow for Argentina's tin-pot leaders as they battle problems at home," the Sun said in its editorial, referring to economic woes in Argentina punctuated by slow growth and high inflation.

"But they are wasting their breath. And they should remember what happened last time."

(Additional reporting Estelle Shirbon in London; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britains-top-tabloid-scolds-argentina-over-falklands-152825428.html

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Saudi Air Force sergeant accused of Vegas child rape

Las Vegas PD via AP

Mazen Alotaibi, 23, faces charges including kidnapping, sexual assault with a minor and felony coercion.

By The Associated Press

A sergeant in Saudi Arabia's air force was jailed in Las Vegas on charges that he pulled a boy into a hotel room and sexually assaulted him the morning of New Year's Eve.

Mazen Alotaibi, 23, faces charges including kidnapping, sexual assault with a minor and felony coercion that could get him decades in state prison, according to police and charging documents obtained Friday.

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The boy, who is younger than 14, told police the man forced him into a room at the Circus Circus hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and raped him. Police arrested Alotaibi after being called to the hotel before 9:30 a.m. Dec. 31.

"There was a kidnapping and sexual assault with force," Las Vegas police Lt. Dan McGrath said. "The victim said he was forced into the room and sexually assaulted. We have a strong case based on the evidence."

The boy, who lives out of state, was staying at the hotel with his family, McGrath said. He was taken to a hospital for medical treatment and evidence collection and released later to family members. His name was not made public.

McGrath said Alotaibi produced a Saudi Arabian military identification and said he was stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland near San Antonio, Texas. U.S. federal authorities and Saudi military officials were notified, the police lieutenant said.

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Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland spokesman Brent Boller told The Associated Press that records showed Alotaibi is currently stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss. Boller said he could not immediately verify if Alotaibi had been at Lackland, but noted that international military students attend a Defense Language Institute English Language Center on the base to improve their English-language skills.

Alotaibi's lawyer, Don Chairez of Newport Beach, Calif., said Friday he had been in contact with U.S. military authorities at both air force bases and with the Saudi government. He said Alotaibi had come to Las Vegas for the New Year's celebration and will plead not guilty.

Alotaibi also is charged with burglary, which in Nevada can stem from a person entering a building with intent to commit a felony.

The alleged attack took place on the sixth floor of a 15-story hotel tower. Circus Circus has a total of 3,767 guest rooms in three towers and five three-story motor lodge-style buildings dubbed Circus Circus Manor.

The arrest was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It cited a police report saying the boy was 13.

Alotaibi was being held without bail at the Clark County jail pending an evidence hearing Jan. 17.

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? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/05/16358783-saudi-air-force-sergeant-accused-of-vegas-child-rape?lite

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Previous studies on toxic effects of BPA couldn't be reproduced

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Following a three-year study using more than 2,800 mice, a University of Missouri researcher was not able to replicate a series of previous studies by another research group investigating the controversial chemical BPA. The MU study is not claiming that BPA is safe, but that the previous series of studies are not reproducible. The MU study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also investigated an estrogenic compound found in plants, genistein, in the same three-year study.

"Our findings don't say anything about the positive or negative effects of BPA or genistein," said Cheryl Rosenfeld, associate professor of biomedical sciences in MU's Bond Life Science Center. "Rather, our series of experiments did not detect the same findings as reported by another group on the potential developmental effects of BPA and genistein when exposure of young occurs in the womb."

Creating reliable data on the effects of the chemicals on mice is important to human health since people are frequently exposed to BPA and genistein and humans share similar biological functions with mice. BPA is a chemical used in certain plastic bottles and may be found in the lining of some canned goods and receipt paper. Genistein occurs naturally in soy beans and is sold as a dietary supplement. Research by Fredrick VomSaal, professor of biological science at MU, and others suggests the chemicals may have other adverse effects on many animals, including humans.

Researcher who conducted the original series of experiments claimed that exposure to BPA and genestein resulted in yellow coat color, or agouti, offspring that were more susceptible to obesity and type 2 diabetes compared to their brown coat color, healthy siblings. However, Rosenfeld and her team did not obtain the same results when repeating the study over a three-year period.

After failing to repeat the original experiments findings with similar numbers of animals, Rosenfeld's group extended the studies to include animal numbers that surpassed the prior studies to verify that their findings were not a fluke and to provide sufficient number of animals to ensure that significant differences would be detected if they existed. However, even these additional numbers of animals and extended experiments failed to reproduce the earlier findings. However, the current studies demonstrate that a maternal diet enriched in estrogenic compounds leads to a greater number of offspring that express an agouti gene compared to those that do not, even though equal ratios should have been born.

"This finding suggests that certain uterine environments may favor animals with a 'thrifty genotype' meaning that the agouti gene of mice may help them survive in unfavorable uterine environments over those mice devoid of this gene, Yet, the downside of this expression of the agouti during early development is that the animals may be at risk for later metabolic disorders, such as obesity and diabetes" Rosenfeld said. "In this aspect, humans also have an agouti gene that encodes for the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) that is expressed in fat tissue and pancreas, and there is some correlation that obese individuals exhibit greater expression of this gene compared to leaner individuals. Therefore, the agouti gene may have evolved to permit humans the ability to survive famine, but its enhanced expression may also potentiate metabolic diseases under bountiful food conditions."

While the research casts doubt on the previous study, Rosenfeld said that by understanding the genetic profile of the mice in the first series of studies, scientists could learn more about the correlation between certain genes and obesity. This could eventually influence prevention and treatment programs for patients with diabetes and other obesity-related diseases in humans.

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University of Missouri-Columbia: http://www.missouri.edu

Thanks to University of Missouri-Columbia for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126114/Previous_studies_on_toxic_effects_of_BPA_couldn_t_be_reproduced

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Microsoft working on a fix for Halo 4 SmartGlass issues, arriving in 'the coming weeks'

Microsoft's SmartGlass and Microsoft's Halo 4 apparently aren't quite getting along on Windows Phone 8 devices. Using SmartGlass, Halo 4 players can normally access their stats and other info about their robot supersoldier using the long-established Waypoint service -- except for Windows Phone 8 users, apparently. A forum thread dating back to Halo 4's November launch highlights the issue -- as Xbox.com forum user "Scion Eon" puts it: "Whenever I try to log into SmartGlass on my phone while playing Halo 4, I am immediately greeted with a message that says 'Your device is missing certain required features.'" As it turns out, Mr. Eon isn't the only one experiencing said connectivity issues -- specific to Windows Phone 8 devices -- and Microsoft's aware of the situation.

"We are aware that there is an issue with the Xbox SmartGlass experience for 'Halo Waypoint' on Windows Phone 8 devices, which may prevent users from accessing Halo 4 player stats," a Microsoft rep told us this afternoon. Thankfully, Redmond's also taking care of a solution. "We are actively working on a fix and expect to have a solution within the coming weeks. We appreciate your patience as this gets resolved and apologize for any inconvenience this causes," the statement reads. Of course, should you want to access Halo 4's Waypoint functionality on SmartGlass before that fix, you can always use Microsoft's competitor's devices. But then who'd do that?

[Thanks Colin!]

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Software, Mobile, Microsoft

Comments

Source: Xbox.com

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/04/halo-4-smartglass-windows-phone-8/

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Rare Stephen King book for auction in Maine

ELLSWORTH, Maine (AP) ? A signed copy of a rare Stephen King book is up for auction at a Maine bookstore, with proceeds going to a nearby homeless shelter's emergency home heating fund.

The copy of "The Regulators," written by horror writer and Maine native King under the pen name Richard Bachman, was donated by a customer of Scottie's Bookhouse in Hancock.

Owner Michael Riggs says there are only 550 copies of the book in a special collector's box.

Auction proceeds will go to the Emmaus Homeless Shelter's emergency fuel fund in Ellsworth.

Emmaus director Sister Lucille MacDonald tells WABI-TV (http://bit.ly/RuFghD ) it's an "ingenious" way to help people struggling to buy heating oil.

The book is on display at Scottie's and bids are being accepted by email, phone and in person until Jan. 31.

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Information from: WABI-AM, http://www.wabiam910.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rare-stephen-king-book-auction-maine-140914466.html

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Fatah party stages first rally in Gaza since 2007

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) ? Leaders of the Palestinian Fatah party led tens of thousands of supporters Friday in a mass rally in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering for the largely secular party in the territory since the rival Islamist Hamas seized power there in 2007.

The demonstration, which was condoned by Hamas, showed how the long-bitter relations between the rival Palestinian factions have improved since an Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip in November.

While Friday's rally pointed to the improving ties between Hamas and Fatah, it also served as a reminder of the conflicts within Fatah that continue to dog the movement: Officials cancelled the event halfway through after 20 people were injured due to overcrowding, and shoving matches erupted between separate Fatah factions.

Yahiya Rabah, a top Fatah official in Gaza, said the rally was cancelled "due to the huge number of participants and logistical failures."

But witnesses said one pushing match was between supporters of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and partisans of former Fatah's former Gaza security commander Mohammed Dahlan, who was expelled from the party because of conflicts with Abbas.

Another Fatah official, who spoke anonymously because he did not want to embarrass the party, said the rally was cancelled because hundreds of Dahlan supporters jumped up on the stage and clashed with Abbas supporters.

Fatah spokesman Fayez Abu Etta attributed the injuries to overcrowding and the excitement of the rally.

Overnight, throngs had camped out in a downtown Gaza square to ensure themselves a spot for the anniversary commemoration of Fatah's 1965 founding, and tens of thousands marched early Friday carrying Fatah banners. When the rally began, people stampeded to the stage to try to shake leaders' hands.

Hamas was not directly involved in the event but allowed it to take place. Top Fatah officials arrived in Gaza for the first time since they were ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007.

Abbas, who rules in the West Bank, did not attend the event, but spoke to the crowd via a televised address, telling them that "there is no substitute for national unity."

Organizers then ended the rally, cancelling the other planned speeches and musical performances.

Hamas has gained new support among Palestinians following eight days of fighting with Israel in November, during which Israel pounded the seaside strip from the air and sea, while Palestinians militants lobbed rockets toward the Israeli cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for the first time.

Following the fighting, relations have thawed somewhat between Hamas and Fatah. Hamas was allowed to hold its first West Bank rallies since the 2007 split in which Hamas seized Gaza and Fatah was left in control of the West Bank. Hamas returned the favor Friday by allowing the Fatah rally.

Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said the party received a congratulatory message from Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who expressed hope that the two factions could reconcile their differences and work together as joint representatives of the Palestinian people.

"This festival will be like a wedding celebration for Palestine, Jerusalem, the prisoners, the refugees and all the Palestinians," Shaath said.

Reconciliation between the two factions, however, is still far from a done deal. Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, considered more pragmatic than Hamas' Gaza-based hardline leaders, forged a reconciliation agreement with Abbas in 2011.

But the Gaza-based leadership, unsupportive of the deal, has held up implementing it. Fatah enjoys Western support and has been pressured not to forge a unity agreement with the militant Hamas - facing a potential cutback in foreign aid if it does. Hamas has carried out hundreds of deadly attacks against Israeli citizens and is regarded by the U.S. and Israel as a terrorist organization.

Fadwa Taleb, 46, who worked as a police officer during the previous rule of Fatah, gathered at the rally with her family. "We feel like birds freed from our cage today," Taleb said. "We are happy and feel powerful again."

A Gaza security official said a Fatah-linked former aide to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of a heart attack in the square overnight, saying he was shocked by the large crowd that was allowed to gather.

In the West Bank, Palestinian President Abbas signed a presidential decree changing the name of the Palestinian Authority to the "State of Palestine," following the Palestinians' upgraded status at the United Nations as a non-member observer state.

According to the decree, reported by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa Thursday night, all stamps, signs, and official letterhead will be changed to bear the new name.

It is the first concrete, albeit symbolic, step the Palestinians have taken following the November decision by the United Nations. Abbas has hesitated to take more dramatic steps, like filing war crimes indictments against Israel at the International Criminal Court, a tactic that only a recognized state can carry out.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fatah-party-stages-first-rally-gaza-since-2007-104909186.html

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